Supercars | News, Pictures and Videos of Supercars

Today, Ferrari is unveiling the 458 Spider, and official video of the new sports car’s roof operation has already hit YouTube. It’s as simple as it is slick. The rear-hinged tonneau flips up, after which the Superamerica-style roof panel rotates back into the space behind behind the seats. After extending two small trim elements, the tonneau comes back down. It’s elegant and fast, and the car, predictably, looks beautiful. Keep an eye out for additional info on Ferrari’s newest addition later today. In the meantime, hit the jump to see the roof in action.
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Most automobiles on this planet find their rubber resting on the clean floor of Jay Leno’s garage at some point in their life. The latest to get the Big Dog denim treatment is the Fiat 500, and Chrysler arrived in Burbank, California with a one-of-500 Prima Edizione just for the occasion. Jay lines the car up alongside his own 1937 Fiat Topolino, which looks like a toy car by comparison, albeit a rather handsome one at that.

Leno has enough room for more than the limited-edition 500, however, and two other Fiat subcompacts get camera time. One is the 500C, which receives a brief mention while the other is a Road Race Motorsports-prepped 500 hardtop that captures quite a bit more of Leno’s attention.
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Turns out Fiat may have been a wee bit ambitious in setting a 50,000-unit goal for the first year that its diminutive 500 hatchback and convertible have been on sale in the United States. Through the month of July, Fiat had sold a total of 7,982 500s in the States in 2011.

That figure includes 3,038 units sold in the month of July, but the monthly tally should continue to rise as more and more dealerships open in markets expected to snatch up the cute and spunky little hatch.

Laura Soave, the woman Fiat chief Sergio Marchionne has put in charge of the Fiat brand in America, isn’t ready to completely dismiss the company’s original 50,000-sale projection, saying instead that it “probably” won’t reach that goal. Much of the problem can be traced back to early Fiat franchise dealer openings. “We missed the whole first quarter,” Soave told Bloomberg, referring to the fact that just 12 of the 130 planned dealerships were open to the public by the end of February.
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As far as autoworker jobs go, putting together a Ferrari has got to be one of the plum gigs. The company is consistently rated as one of the best places to work in Europe, but if the pleasant atmosphere and long espresso breaks weren’t enough, you get to go home at the end of the day knowing that you put together a Ferrari. Not a pickup truck, not an economy hatchback, but a Ferrari.

Unfortunately for most of us, that job isn’t really feasible, but to give us a glimpse at what we’re missing, Ferrari is apparently releasing a series of videos showing us what it’s like inside its factory. Last week it was the engine assembly line, and this time it’s the facility where the workers produce the frame.
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To help the well-heeled keep their 2011 Ferrari FFs out of the ditches in icy conditions, and give them something to plan a ski vacation around, Ferrari has announced it will hold a winter driving course for new FF owners in Aspen this winter.

The course is available with limited slots exclusively available for Ferrari owners over a six- or seven-week period this winter. The spots will be made available late this summer on a first-come, first-serve basis.

The American program is based on the Pilota on Ice programs Ferrari offered to European buyers in the Alps. Aspen may not be quite as shi-shi a setting, but an ice road laid down among Colorado’s famous “fourteeners” sounds like a good time to us. See all the details in the press release after the break.

A whole string of new models from Ferrari are in the pipeline. And once in a while, we get an insider’s glimpse at what to expect. This time, Automotive News Europe has what they believe is a handle on the Maranello marque’s plans for the next few years, and so far things look promising.

First up, reports are circulating that Ferrari will present the new 458 Spider at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show in September. The successor to the discontinued 430 Spider is tipped to get some sort of retractable hard-top, though we’ll have to wait to see precisely what form that will take.

ANE is also reporting that a more hardcore version of the 458 will arrive in 2013, though given that the lightweight model changed designations from the 360 Challenge Stradale to the 430 Scuderia, we’d expect the new model to carry a different name yet again. Following the California’s anticipated facelift in 2013, the 458 Italia itself is also rumored to get a refresh in 2014, though given that the car just went on sale last year, that timeframe could prove a little premature.
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Italians are very proud of their brands. From Panerai watches to Ferrari supercars, Italian luxury brands are the epitome of style. Even smaller motorized products are stylish, from the Vespa scooter on up to the Fiat 500. It’s that last one that is once again partnering up with a major house of Italian fashion.

Gucci has linked arms with Fiat one more time, and the result is the 500C by Gucci. The droptop subcompact gets an extra ounce of style courtesy of the company founded by Guccio Gucci. When Fiat revealed the hardtop version of the Gucci 500, more than 3,000 pre-orders came flooding into the automaker’s website.
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Generally speaking, we prefer driving cars to building them. Still, you can’t do the former if the latter isn’t taken care of. And since one of the cars at the top of our “must drive” list is the Ferrari 458 Italia, naturally we’re curious to see what it takes to put one together. Thankfully for us, then, Ferrari brought a video crew into its Maranello, Italy factory, and we’re gifted a first-hand view of an engine coming to life.

The Prancing Horse’s 4.5-liter V8 produces 562 horsepower and 398 pound-feet of torque. That’s enough energy to move the 458 Italia from 0-62 miles per hour in around 3.4 seconds. Keep the gas to the floor and you’ll eventually see 202 miles per hour.

What does it take to bring that mill to life? Click past the jump to find out.
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No new car launch would be complete without a corresponding marketing campaign. But when that launch and campaign are heralding the return of a famed automaker and nameplate to the American market after decades of absence, the marketing team is likely to be an especially important part of the overall success of launch… at least at the outset.

Such is the case with Fiat, which recently reentered the U.S. market by way of its bailout of struggling Chrysler. The car on which Fiat is banking its initial hopes on is the diminutive 500 and 500C convertible, and it’s launching with a new tagline: Simply More. We’ll let Fiat itself explain:

The FIAT brand’s new tagline, “Simply More,” defines the Fiat 500 as everything you need and nothing you don’t. It represents the notion that the simple things in life are treasures, alongside the thought that the richness and fullness of a life well-lived is defined by one’s view of self-expression.

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On any given Sunday, you can expect to find a Ferrari 458 Italia racecar screeching around one or more circuits around the world.

Unsurprisingly, Maranello is serious about challenging the Porsche 911 for shear proliferation in sports car racing. That’s why the mid-engined GT has already spawned Challenge, GT2 and GT3 racing versions, and has now bred one more for the Grand Am series. Developed by Ferrari’s go-to racing garage, Michelotto, this latest competition 458 has just undergone its initial shakedown at the company’s on-site Fiorano test track at the hands of Jamie Melo (who’s driven the previous F430 GT2 to two consecutive class wins at Le Mans and class titles in the American Le Mans Series and FIA GT Championship) and Maurizio Mediani (who just happened to have been our instructor at the Alfa Romeo driving school at Varano).
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